The Ethics of Talk: Classroom Conversation and Democratic Politics

Recognizing that there is an ethical dimension to conversation generally, I raise the question:
What is the ethical impact of conversation in the classroom? This is an important issue for
democracies, where the quality of politics depends heavily on the quality of public discourse.
Recently, university education has been criticized for fostering a moral relativism and partisanship that are weakening American civic life. I argue that the experience of critical inquiry
conducted through classroom dialogue can cultivate precisely those ethical characteristics
required of participants In the public life of a deliberative democracy.

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